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Rape of Nanking
During the Sino-Japanese War, Nanking, the capital of China, fail to Japanese forces. To break the spirit of Chinese resistance, Japanese General Matsui Iwane ordered that the city of Nanking be destroyed. Much of the city was burned, and Japanese troops launched a campaign of atrocities against civilians. In the “Rape of Nanking,” the Japanese killed an estimated 150,000 “war prisoners,” massacred an additional 50,000 male civilians, and raped at least 20,000 women and girls of all ages. -
German Blitzkrieg
Blitzkrieg is a term used to describe a method of offensive warfare designed to strike a swift, focused blow at an enemy using mobile, maneuverable forces, including armored tanks and air support. This tactic derived from Germany's strategy to avoid a long war in the first phase of WW2 in Europe. The psychological effect of panic and chaos that the blitzkrieg created in a civilian population also greatly helped the German military conquer territories quickly. -
Operation Barbossa
Hitler hoped to repeat the success of the blitzkrieg in Western Europe and win a quick victory over the massive nation he viewed as Germany’s sworn enemy. On June 22, 1941, more than 3 million German/Axis troops invaded the Soviet Union. It was Germany’s largest invasion force of the war, and one of the most powerful invasion forces in history. In the end, the operation failed as the mission to destroy Soviet fighting power and force a capitulation was not achieved. -
Pearl Harbor
On December 7, 1941, Japan launched a sneak attack on the U.S. base Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, as a plan to eliminate any potential challenge to Japanese conquests in Asia. The attack killed 2,403 service members and wounded 1,178 more, and sank or destroyed six U.S. ships and 169 U.S. planes. After the Pearl Harbor attack, for the first time during years of discussion and debate, the American people were united in their determination to go to war, causing the U.S. to join WW2. -
Wannsee Conference
On January 20, 1942, Nazi officials met to discuss the details of the "Final Solution" of the "Jewish question". The agenda was simple and focused: to devise a plan that would render a final solution to the Jewish question in Europe. What came of this get together was horrendous. Months later, the "gas vans" in Chelmno, Poland, which were killing 1,000 people a day, proved to be the "solution" the Germans were looking for: the most efficient means of killing large groups of people at one time. -
Battle of Midway
The Battle of Midway was an epic clash between the U.S. Navy and the Imperial Japanese Navy. In hope to replicate the success of the Pearl Harbor attack, Yamamoto decided to seek out the U.S. Pacific fleet with a surprise attack at the Allied base at Midway Island. U.S. Navy’s decisive victory in the air-sea battle and its successful defense at Midway Island dashed Japan’s hopes of neutralizing the United States as a naval power and effectively turned the tide of World War II in the Pacific. -
Warsaw Ghetto Uprising
The Warsaw ghetto uprising was a violent revolt that occurred from April 19 to May 16, 1943, during WW2. Residents of the Jewish ghetto staged the armed revolt to prevent deportations to Nazi-run extermination camps. The Warsaw uprising inspired other revolts in extermination camps and ghettos throughout German-occupied Eastern Europe. Nazis entered the ghetto to prepare a group for transfer to a camp, a ZOB unit ambushed them. Fighting lasted for several days before the Germans withdrew. -
D-Day (Normandy Invasion)
On June 6, 1944, invasion of the beaches at Normandy in northern France landed 156,000 Allied soldiers on the beaches of Normandy. In late August 1944, Paris was liberated and the Germans were removed from northwestern France, ending the Battle of Normandy. The Allied forces then entered Germany, where they would meet up with Soviet troops moving in from the east & in spring of 1945 the Allies had defeated the Germans. Historians often refer to D-Day as the beginning of the end of World War II. -
Battle of the Bulge
Lasting six brutal weeks, from December 16, 1944, to January 25, 1945, the Battle of the Ardennes, took place during frigid weather conditions, with some 30 German divisions attacking battle-fatigued American troops across 85 miles of the Ardennes Forest. Hitler hoped that the German counter-attack would surround the British and American armies and slow the Allies down. The battle proved to be very costly suffering over 100,000 casualties in efforts of pushing back Germany in the victory. -
Battle of Iwo Jima
The Battle of Iwo Jima was fought between U.S. Marines and the Imperial Army of Japan in early 1945. American forces invaded the island on February 19, 1945, with determination that Iwo Jima must be captured for the benefits of the three airfields there. It’s believed that all but 200 or so of the 21,000 Japanese forces on the island were killed, as were almost 7,000 Marines. The victory in Iwo Jima proved to be part of a plan by the United States to end the war with Japan -
Liberation of Concentration camps
On April 29, 1945, the U.S. Seventh Army’s 45th Infantry Division liberates Dachau, the first concentration camp established by Germany’s Nazi regime. A major Dachau subcamp was liberated the same day by the 42nd Rainbow Division. Inside the camp there were more bodies and 30,000 survivors, most severely emaciated.The wrenching images and first-hand testimonies recorded by Dachau’s shocked liberators brought the horrors of the Holocaust home to America. -
VE Day
Following the suicide of Adolf Hitler, on April 30, and the collapse of the Nazi Party (Germany unconditionally surrendered), causing the end of the war in Europe to be clearly in sight. -
Bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
Due to Japan not surrendering along with Germany and still posing as a threat. On August 6, 1945, an American B-29 bomber dropped the atomic bomb over the Japanese city of Hiroshima. The explosion immediately killed an estimated 80,000 people; tens of thousands more would later die of radiation exposure. Three days later, a second B-29 dropped another A-bomb on Nagasaki, killing an estimated 40,000 people. This caused Japan to finally surrender in a radio broadcast on August 15, 1945. -
VJ Day
On August 14, 1945, it was announced that Japan had surrendered unconditionally to the Allies, effectively ending World War II. Since then, both August 14 and August 15 have been known as “Victory Over Japan Day,” or simply “V-J Day.” -
Postdam Conference
At the Potsdam Conference, the “Big Three” powers who had defeated Nazi Germany met in the city of Potsdam near Berlin. Their meeting lasted from July 17 to August 2, 1945, during what was a crucial moment in defining the post-World War II balance of power.Germany’s fate after the war was an important topic of the conference.Ultimately, the Allies worked out a deal in which the Soviets got to take German industrial machinery from their occupation zone.